Host Institution USA: Tata Institute of Social Science

Michael Whalen

Mr. Michael Whalen is a teacher at Kearsley High School in Flint, Michigan, where he has taught for eight years. During his time with Kearsley Community Schools, he has served as the Student Council advisor and as the Social Studies Continuous Improvement chair, and has made presentations on professional-development topics such as technology use in the classroom and on the electronic lesson planning and resources offered by the Michigan Department of Education. Mr. Whalen served as an elected member of the Mt. Morris Board of Education for 11 years, was an administrative intern with the Kearsley High School leadership team, and was one of 24 teachers in Michigan selected to serve as a representative on Michigan’s Teacher Leadership Advisory Council.

Mr. Whalen received his master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a bachelor’s degree in social studies education from the University of Michigan in Flint, and earned a minor in Finnish education and pedagogy while studying at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

For his Fulbright project, Mr. Whalen is exploring how India’s secular and non-secular schools are adapting to the social emotional impact of trauma caused by issues such as the COVID pandemic and poverty. In this area, he has been identifying strategies for inspiring self-awareness, self-reflection, and mindfulness in trauma-impacted youth which can then be shared with local and regional communities. Additionally, Mr. Whalen has been identifying various stakeholders that have successfully leveraged social emotional programming to positively impact student outcomes.

John (Ike) Uri

Mr. John Uri is a doctoral candidate in sociology at Brown University. He earned his BA in Sociology from the University of Kansas in 2017, before serving as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Tajikistan. He earned an MA in Sociology at Brown University in 2020. For his master’s thesis, Mr. Uri conducted interview-based research in India, working to understand how climate adaptation – efforts to reduce vulnerability to climate change – occurs in Indian cities. Such efforts are often funded by international donors, and that project illustrated how consultants, positioned between these donors and local urban officials, are a necessary part of urban adaptation planning in India. With the support of this Fulbright grant, Mr. Uri’s dissertation research will focus on these consultants and their role in urban climate adaptation, considering adaptation efforts in the city of Mumbai.

Apart from these primary research interests, Mr. Uri has conducted research at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences (the UN climate negotiations). In this capacity, Mr. Uri has considered the negotiations from a critical perspective, paying particular attention to the topics of climate finance and adaptation, as well as the nascent issue of loss and damage.

Cities in India face intensifying risks from the climate crisis, necessitating climate adaptation (actions and policies that reduce climate vulnerability). Urban adaptation planning is increasingly common in India, often carried out by consultants. This Fulbright-Nehru project intends to focus on these consultants, who coordinate the interests of international donors and urban officials. Using ethnographic research methods, Mr. Uri aims to embed himself in a firm in Mumbai that provides these services. The goal of this project is to better understand the ‘best practices’ of urban adaptation planning and how international norms and features of local governance impact those practices.

Adam Shaham

Hailing from New York City, Mr. Mr. Adam Shaham graduated with a Bachelor in Science in International Culture and Politics from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 2022. During his time at Georgetown, Mr. Shaham pursued his combined interests in public service and environmental stewardship in his work inside and outside of the classroom. His self-designed major focused on the intersection of international relations and climate change. Through the four-year Mortara Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Mr. Shaham conducted research on gender, education, and technology policy across the Middle East and was published in the International Journal of Education Development.

Off campus, Mr. Shaham completed internships at the U.S. Department of State and with Nancy Pelosi in the Office of the Speaker of the House. Mr. Shaham’s passion for environmental conservation also led him to volunteer more than 500 hours doing shore bank stabilization, invasive species removal, and fire clearance with AmeriCorps through Conservation Corps Minnesota and Iowa. Mr. Shaham was selected as a National Science Foundation REU intern at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) in Fall of 2021. While at BIOS, Mr. Shaham developed a species distribution model for coral fish species threatened by invasive lionfish utilizing machine learning software. In his free time, Mr. Shaham loves to run, read bad mystery novels, and devour bagels.

Mangroves serve vital ecosystem functions, including shore stabilization and carbon sequestration. In the last decade, there have been hundreds of mangrove restoration programs globally yet most restorations have failed for lack of community buy-in. Through the Maharashtra Mangrove Cell, 120 km2 of Mumbai’s mangrove habitats have been restored. In order for these restorations to succeed long term, Mr. Shaham’s Fulbright-Nehru project will evaluate the socio-ecological role of Mumbai’s mangroves to identify effective community conservation strategies. Through interviews at restoration sites, this project aims to gauge community perceptions of mangrove forests. Utilizing Maharashtra State Archive records, this project aims to study historic perceptions of Mumbai’s mangroves.

Meher Kaur

Ms. Meher Kaur is a graduate from the University of Richmond, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Global Studies with a concentration in Development Studies. During her time at the University of Richmond, Ms. Kaur’s studies and research focused in the areas of labor studies, gender studies, and economic empowerment in India. She wrote an Honors Economics Thesis on India’s biometric ID system – Aadhaar, and its ability to facilitate access to public welfare schemes and private services for India’s vulnerable population groups. She also wrote a senior thesis on the city of Gurgaon, India and how its social and urban development was impacted by India’s transition to a neoliberal state and economy. During her time at university, Ms. Kaur also lived in rural Odisha, India, for three months while working with the Indian NGO Gram Vikas to provide water and sanitation services to tribal populations in remote areas. She further studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Cape Town as part of a multidisciplinary urban studies and economic development study program. Following graduation, Ms. Kaur worked with J-PAL South Asia as a Field Research Associate for a project based out of Punjab, India, where she studied drug use among Punjabi youth and developed and tested the effectiveness of a media awareness campaign. During this time, she realized her interest in the field of public health.

Ms. Kaur is interested in studying and building solutions to address gaps in India’s healthcare delivery systems, with a focus on women and disadvantaged population groups. She is passionate about community-driven research and hopes to grow her skillset through field research and networking with organizations in India’s social sector.

Maternal and reproductive health refers to the health of women before, during, and after pregnancy and the capability to make decisions to reproduce. Studies on Indian migration reveal that urban migrants often lack basic healthcare services, and emerging research in the era of COVID-19 shows that new barriers to healthcare access have formed. Ms. Kaur aims to use a mixed-methods and community-driven approach to bring the perspectives of underrepresented groups such as migrant women to the context of existing policies that cater to urban migrants’ health needs.

Aashish Kumar

Prof. Aashish Kumar (he/him) is a tenured Full Professor of Television and Immersive Media in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. His areas of expertise include documentary, interactive and immersive media, participatory media, and storytelling for social change. He is also the Founding Program Director of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Immersive Media, an innovative program launched in conjunction with departments from the Schools of Communication, Engineering and Computer Science, and Humanities, Fine, and Performing Arts.

Prof. Kumar is interested in emerging media forms that use innovative storytelling strategies to help people become more aware of internal diversities and the margins of their communities. To him, such an empathic understanding is key to forming broader solidarities and bridging the gap with “the other.” He is interested in how one’s process of capturing, representing, and distributing these stories can become integral to the overall intention of the storyteller. Prof. Kumar most recently launched an interactive documentary series focusing on the gender and sexual diversity within the South Asian diaspora in North America. Titled “Body, Home, World: South Asian LGBTQ+ Journeys,” the interactive online portal centers around narratives of LGBTQ+ identifying individuals and their families, allowing the viewer to navigate between these multiple viewpoints and to gain an understanding of the uniqueness as well as the interdependence of each experience.

Dr. Kumar is the recipient of two Fulbright Specialist awards (2016 and 2019) and a Fulbright Senior Scholar award (2008). In addition to teaching courses at all levels of the television curriculum he also serves on the Advisory Board of Hofstra University’s Center for Civic Engagement and the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice.

Prof. Kumar earned an MFA in Television Production from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, an MS in Radio/TV/Film from Indiana State University, and an MA and BA (Honors) in Sociology from the University of Delhi. He resides in New York City with his wife and son and enjoys playing the guitar and learning Hindustani Classical music.

Sexual minorities in India have made significant legal gains with two recent Supreme Court decisions – one that recognizes and protects the rights of transgender people and another that ends the criminalization of homosexuality. However, most LGBTQ+ activists contend that the campaign to change hearts and minds must take place over the long-term through the humanizing and normalizing of India’s LGBTQ+ community. Through his Fulbright-Nehru grant, Prof. Kumar proposes to capture the stories of families with LGBTQ+ individuals in short documentary films and make them available through an interactive online portal. These short films will center the experience of families as well as LGBTQ+ individuals, demonstrating that allyship and advocacy go together.

Rhea Chandran

Rhea Chandran graduated from Haverford College with a BA in history in 2023. She was born and raised in Geneva, Illinois, by immigrant parents from India. She attended Phillips Academy Andover where she discovered her passion for advocacy and humanities research. At Haverford, she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow where she was supported by the Mellon Foundation to conduct independent research and prepare for graduate studies. She also served as the co-chair of the Honor Council; as a student representative on a faculty committee on student academic standing; and as a co-organizer of the first-year orientation program. She has worked for the House Committee on Homeland Security; for the Office of Congresswoman Lauren Underwood; for BallotReady; and for the American Business Immigration Coalition.

Rhea’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying the historical and sociological impacts on women who exit commercial sex work in India. She is conducting archive-based historical analysis to trace the impacts of modern India’s laws governing prostitution. Her historical research is informing her sociological study which focuses on documenting casework and collecting interview data from these women to discern the best pathways for rehabilitation. Rhea’s research is seeking to answer integral questions related to how the history of criminalization of prostitution affects sex workers today.